Schneider's Sweet Shop marks 75 years

Jack and Kathy Schneider, owners of Schneider's Sweet Shop in Bellevue, outside their business. The shop, which Jack's father founded in 1939, is celebrating its 75th anniversary Aug. 16 with an all day party. (Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

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It all started in a two-car garage behind a Fairfield Avenue storefront.

Jack Schneider, owner of Schneider's Sweet Shop, Bellevue, stirs a batch of peanut butter fudge. The shop, which his father founded in 1939, is celebrating it's 75th anniversary Saturday with an all day party.
(Photo:
The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy
)

BELLEVUE – Bite into a piece of candy from Schneider's Sweet Shop, and you know you're tasting something special.

In fact, you can smell it as soon as you walk through the door: the sweet scent of deep, rich, high-quality chocolate.

For 75 years, Schneider's and its homemade treats have been a mainstay of the community: locals know that for a birthday gift, something special for the Easter basket, or just a cool treat on a hot day, you go to Schneider's.

"It's been part of the fabric of Bellevue for a long time – 75 years," said Mayor Ed Riehl. "That's a tribute to their products and their style of business."

And it all started in a two-car garage behind a Fairfield Avenue storefront.

In 1939, Robert Schneider – "The Candy Man", as he would come to be known – was a young man just starting out in the sweets business.

Jack Schneider was born in an apartment above Schneider's Sweet Shop, Bellevue, a candy store his parents opened 75 years ago. He doesn't live there now but most days he's there making candy or ice cream using recipes he got from his Dad.

He'd learned the art of candy-making while working at Lilly's Candy Shop in nearby Covington, so he was a natural choice to run the store his father bought for the family.

In those early days, Robert made every piece of candy himself in a two-car garage behind the Schneider's storefront at the corner of Fairfield and Foote avenues.

An employee, Stella Apple, sat near the front door of the store and hand-dipped each piece, while keeping a close eye on any child audacious enough to try and swipe a taste of the dipping chocolate. (It would be about two decades before Robert finally bought a candy-coating machine.)

Robert's wife, Lillian, helped run the store. They lived upstairs with their seven children, including Jack, who took to the business as a teenager. He helped his father make the candy and continued working at the shop even as he started his own family and built a career as an electrician at Cincinnati Milacron.

The business grew and became part of the fabric of the community.

"My parents would take me there for candy and iceballs, and later I took my own children there to experience the same thing I did while I was growing up," Riehl said.

But by the mid-1980's, Robert Schneider was 65 years old and ready to retire. He intended to close the doors, until his son overheard that plan at dinner one night.

Jack and his wife, Kathy, weren't ready to let that happen. So Jack left Cincinnati Milacron, and the couple took over the family business.

That was 28 years ago. And Schneider's has not only grown, but thrived: "It grows every year," Jack Schneider said.

Not much else has changed, however: Jack still uses his father's recipes to make the candy in the same two-car garage in which his father worked, though it's now attached to the storefront.

He does makes the candy and ice cream himself, frequently working long and late hours, especially during the holidays. And he cranks out as many opera creams as he can, since they account for more than 30 percent of the shop's business.

"Not many places put the care and the love that we do into making the chocolates, and do it the way it's supposed to be done," Schneider said.

His production methods and ingredients are "as close as we can be" to his father's original methods, and his motto is: no shortcuts.

Some candy producers water down their cream with milk to drive down the price or boost profits, for example, but not Schneider's.

"I'll raise the prices before I'll drop the quality," Schneider said. "When you walk out this door, you'll always get what you want."

Customers approve: business continues to grow and Schneider's now ships candy across the nation year-round.

(Jack and Kathy always warn that candy ships better in the cooler months than in the summer, but that doesn't deter customers: "They say they don't care; they just want their opera creams," he said.)

So what does the future hold?

Eventually, Jack, who is 60, figures he'll also retire and hand over the business to one of his three daughters – who also grew up working in the store – or another family member.

For now, however, he and Kathy are investing in the future.

They just completed a major expansion, doubling the factory and storage space, and also added an outdoor patio along Fairfield Avenue that has been extremely popular with customers.

And Saturday afternoon, they'll hold a party to celebrate the 75-year mark. Along with live music and family-friendly events, one lucky attendee will leave with the ultimate prize: one box of Schneider's candy every month for the next year. ■

Schneider's Sweet Shop will hold a 75th Anniversary Celebration from noon to 10 p.m. Saturday. There will be family-friendly events during the day, such as a magician from 2-4 p.m., and live music from 6-9 p.m.

Every hour, a one-pound box of homemade candy will be given away. And one person will leave with the grand prize: a box of candy every month for a year.